


A Step Towards Confidence

by aseies



Series: Mitchell Kadar [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Don't pierce your own ears kids, Ear Piercings, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Piercings, don't follow their example
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24314764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aseies/pseuds/aseies
Summary: “How much does it hurt?” Nico asked.“Well, speaking from experience,” Mitchell soaked a ball of cotton in rubbing alcohol. “It hurtslessthan getting stabbed in the kidney.”OR:Mitchell helps Nico pierce his ears.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Mitchell
Series: Mitchell Kadar [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767325
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	A Step Towards Confidence

**Author's Note:**

> Anonymous prompt from Tumblr: "Blood"
> 
> Originally posted to Tumblr in 2015.

“I’m having second thoughts about this.”

It wasn’t that Nico didn’t trust Mitchell. Really. He knew how to take a secret to the grave and be brutally honest when it mattered. But being a good confidant had nothing to do with his ability to stick needles into another person’s body so Nico was — justifiably, in his opinion — a little nervous watching Mitchell holding the needle that was supposed to go through his ear in an open flame.

“Oh, really?”

Mitchell could read emotions. It was far more annoying than it was useful, but it just made his offhand tone feel all the more condescending. Mitchell _knew_ how uncomfortable Nico was feeling right now and yet—

“Hey.” Mitchell clicked the lighter closed, and looked Nico in the eye. “If it’s really bugging you, we can stop. But it seems to me you’re just nervous, and need to push through it. I felt the same way when my sisters put mine in. — Oh, keep the ice cube on your ear a bit longer.”

Nico rubbed his ear, almost completely having lost feeling in it, and placed the ice cube back over the spot where his piercing was going to be.

“How much does it hurt?” Nico asked.

“Well, speaking from experience,” Mitchell soaked a ball of cotton in rubbing alcohol. “It hurts _less_ than getting stabbed in the kidney.”

"Gee, _thanks._ I feel loads better.”

"You’re going to be _fine_ ,” he said, trading Nico’s ice for the cotton swab. “You’re gonna be all tense the whole time and then not even realize it happened ‘cause you’ve been through so much worse it won’t even ping on your radar. Rub that over the front and back of your ear.”

Nico followed Mitchell’s instructions as he gave them. He had to clip his hair back so it wouldn’t get in the way, and Nico felt a little ridiculous, but he really did want to go through with this. Mitchell had been coaching him through controlling his appearance — figuring out what makes him feel better about himself, and stand a little taller. It’s been working out well so far, but recently he’d been feeling like he had to take a bigger step. A more permanent one. Not _tattoo_ permanent, but close. Earrings just felt like the next logical step to confidence.

"Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Then get into the light.” Mitchell gestured over to the lamp they set up next to the nearest Greek-fire torch. Nico pulled over a stool and sat down, leaning his head onto his shoulder so his friend could work easily. 

Mitchell’s gloved fingers brushed against Nico’s skin as he placed the cork under Nico’s ear, and Nico could feel the muscles in his neck relax. A side-effect of Mitchell’s emotion-reading powers was that he synchronized his emotions with other people when he touched them. Weeks of practice made it clear the calm confidence Nico was feeling was actually Mitchell’s, but at the moment he welcomed the artificial emotion. 

He could vaguely feel the tip of the needle pressing against his numb earlobe, but he just stared at the way his sloppily made bed was wrinkled until he felt the sharp pinch. Nico jammed his eyes shut, but it was through before he had time to properly brace himself. An uncomfortable tug through his ear later, Mitchell was removing the cork and placing on the back of the barbell. 

“How was it?” Mitchell asked, dabbing at Nico’s ear with a tissue. There were only a few drops of blood on it, and most of it was from the needle itself.

“Totally worse than getting a kidney stabbed, you liar,” Nico said flatly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Mitchell laughed and handed him a mirror. “Sorry about that. What do you think?”

Nico’s ear was red around the silver piercing, but it looked… _right_ there. Like it belonged. Any doubts he’d had before disappeared, and Nico took the barrettes out of his hair, letting it fall down to its regular shaggy length. He frowned, lifting his hair so that he could see his ears again.

“Could we cut my hair too?”

Mitchell shrugged a shoulder, an approving smile on his lips. “Sure thing. But let’s finish piercing that other ear first, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Nico smiled, and pinned back the hair on his other side.


End file.
